Definitions for byoyomi

Here are all the possible meanings and translations of the word byoyomi.

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byoyomi(Noun)

A system of time control in some board games, especially go and shogi, in which the player is assigned a number of additional periods (of a fixed time per move) when his/her initial allotted time runs out.

Origin: 秒読み

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Byoyomi

Byo-yomi is an extended time control in two-player games, specifically shogi and go. The word is borrowed from Japanese; the term literally means "counting the seconds," or more generally, "countdown."
A typical time control is "60 minutes + 30 seconds byo-yomi", which means that each player may make as many or as few moves as he chooses during his first 60 minutes of thinking time, but after the hour is exhausted, he must make each move in thirty seconds or less. To enforce byo-yomi, a third person or a game clock with a byo-yomi option is necessary.
In professional Go games and many amateur tournaments, a player has several byo-yomi periods, for example five periods of one minute each. If a player makes his move within a one-minute period, he retains all five periods for his future moves. If a player oversteps one minute, he starts the following move in the second rather than the first byo-yomi period. In effect, the player has one minute per move plus four extra one-minute packets which may be used as needed, e.g. four moves of two minutes each, or one move of five minutes, or any other combination.
In higher-level tournaments, such as the Kisei tournament, the player's time is often composed entirely of byo-yomi periods, rather than having a main block of thinking time. In this case, the actual counting of time begins once the player falls below a certain threshold of time, such as 10 minutes; when the time is being counted, the player is informed at intervals how much time they have used in their current period, and how many extra periods they have left.